The present invention generally relates to a folding top for vehicles and more particularly to a mechanical drive arrangement for opening and closing the folding top.
A folding top of the type concerned here is disclosed by German Patent Specification 3,724,531 in which the folding top is open and closed alternately, via a pivoting drive of mechanical drive members, without particular knowledge of the folding sequence of the main strut and roof-skin retaining bow. At the same time, all the movement controls in the two lever mechanisms take place purely mechanically, thus per se guaranteeing a high operating liability.
To make it possible to lock the main strut in an erected end position thereof and at the same time uncouple the main strut from the driving movement of drive cylinders, a control pawl is mounted pivotably on a bracket side of the main strut. The control pawl fork of the control pawl has a crosspin connected fixedly to an associated top column which penetrates on both sides thereof during the operation of erecting the mains strut. In the final phase of its erecting movement, the control pawl is thereby swung nearer to the bottom of the bracket, as a result of which the main strut is locked in the manner of a rotary latch.
During the pivoting movement of the control pawl, a detent member, running in a radially extending linear guide of the drive member, is simultaneously shifted into its release position, with the result that the main strut is uncoupled from the driving movement of the drive members. Thus, during the further pivoting of the drive members in the same direction, now only the roof-skin retaining bow is driven, whereas the drive members no longer provide support for the erected main strut. Because of this arrangement of control by control pawls, the operation of uncoupling the main strut is superposed on the operation of locking it, and as a result there is no guarantee that the locking of the top columns to the vehicle body is concluded before the uncoupling operation between the top columns and the associated drive member has ended.
This problem is aggravated particularly because, during the closing of the folding top, for example as a result of wind forces captured in the top material, the main strut is loaded counter to its swing-up direction.
However, a further pivoting of the mechanical drive members when the main strut is not completely locked must necessarily lead to operating faults in the actuation of the top, and these can nullify again the advantage afforded per se by an automatic sequence control of the movement of the rod assembly.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a folding top of the relevant generic type, wherein an uncoupling of a main strut from the driving movement of drive members begins only after the main strut has been locked in its erected end position.
This and other objects are achieved by an arrangement having a purely mechanical mode of operation. Different types of catch means are possible, in principle, for this. It is necessary to guarantee, however, that the main strut is blocked in pivoting terms via catch devices as early as during a first phase of a catching advance, after which uncoupling of the main strut from the drive members can be activated in the course of subsequent catching advance.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.